LIMS09: Yamaha's New Performance Synths

S90XS and S70XS aimed at the pros. 11/06/09

Buying Choices

I was hoping to be saying this was Fresh off the boat - quite literally - we were present at the official UK launch of the new S90XS and S70XS on the boat on the river Thames last night - but I can't - the Tube strike in London yesterday meant that we were held in traffic for 3hrs and missed it. Grrr!
But that's of no consequence really - I'm sure you just want the facts right?
So here they come:
Two new "Perfect Performance" synthesizers in the S series, the S90XS and S70XS - with 88 and 76 key versions, both featuring Yamaha Balanced Hammer Action keybeds, both with the same 456MB of wave ROM with 142MB dedicated to just the piano waves.
Both models have the capacity to record audio into Flash ROM or to an attached USB storage with an external combo XLR and jack input. There's also on board DSP for processing either post record or on the live input. Incedentally, there's also a vocoder.
These kind of processing functions make these keyboards a good candidate for the live environment as you can playback stereo audio from the USB or flash storage to accompany you. But with USB connectivity too, the XS models can also be integrated into the DAW environment - with Yamaha close ties with Steinberg allowing the instrument to be integrated as a VST plug-in with control from the computer.
We will be taking a closer look at this synth at the LIMS show - video to follow.